Species Recovery, Large Blue Butterfly

The Large Blue has declined in European grasslands, one of its main habitats, since 1990 by more than 90%, based on the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator. “Despite over 50 years of effort to halt its decline, the Large Blue butterfly was pronounced extinct in Britain in 1979. Its reintroduction in 1984 was based on the discovery that its caterpillars can only survive in the nest of one particular species of red ant...” Alterations in grazing and myxomatosis in rabbits resulted in habitat loss for the Large Blue. “Today, after a major programme implemented by a broad partnership of scientists and conservation bodies, suitable habitat has been restored to more than 50 former sites, and the butterfly can be found on 33 of them in the south-west of England. Other rare species of plants, insects and birds are now benefiting from the same conservation work as the Large Blues because they had suffered from the same changes in agricultural practices.”